When you’re building a new product, the question “How is it different?” is mostly pointless.
Because “different” can be hugely misleading as a metric.
Business developers love “different”. But the customers couldn’t care less. Customers care for specific.
In fact, many customers have no sympathy for “different”. They prefer “familiar”. Familiar is proven and safe.
Customers do care very much about whether your product solves their specific need.
Therefore, a better question to ask is: “What specific problem does this solve that isn’t solved properly, yet?”
(And, by the way, when you have an answer to that question, you’ll get the answer to “What’s different?” for free.)
